Thomas Brambilla Gallery is proud to present the solo show of Simon Linke, premiering on Saturday February 24 th , 2018, at 6.30 PM.

Slightly smaller than one of Artfor um ‘s full – page ads, Simon Linke’s paintings corrupt the clean graphic layout of their source through a full – on indulgence in an excess of oil paint. Replicating the ads as faithfully as possible while wrangling a robust, fluid material within an almost com ically limiting surface area, Linke’s paintings exist as a near – perfect contradiction between boldly expressed market confidence and an artist’s potential alienation from the pressures t o produce a consistent product.

Arresting Artforum ‘s iconic monthly bu lletins announcing the “new” in a relief of thickly applied paint, Linke’s paintings express the ideal of stability where there is none, flipping the temporal nature of an exhibition notice on its head. Focusing largely on recognizable blue chip artists an d galleries, the paintings’ compact size and precise articulation offer an ironic contrast to the overwhelming scale and volume of the contemporary art marke t from which their subjects are derived.

More recently focusing on ads featuring paintings, which b ecome paintings of ads, Linke channels his enthusiasm for the medium of paint through the discipline of a working within predetermined surface area, where the “natural” boundaries of his compositions reveal staging mechanisms of contemporary art that are o ften hidden in plain sight. When looked at as a decade’s long project, which functions as an informal archive, Simon Linke’s work offers a refreshing sense of historicism often lost in the collective pressure to focus on the “next big thing”.

Simon Linke’s recent exhibitions include Karsten Schubert, London, and Mireille Mosler in New York. He has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions including Le Consortium, Dijon in 2004 and his works are represented in a number of public collection s including Tate Gallery, London and FRAC Limousin, France. He currently lives and works in London.